In the pending United States patent applications of F. J. Lawrence, Ser. No. 98,191, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,343,463, and Du Bois and Hamma, Ser. No. 98,546, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,328,963, there are disclosed sorting machines, applicable to office copying machines, which are of simple, compact construction.
These sorting machines utilize a shifting bin mode of operation, wherein the bins are pivotally mounted at one end remote from the sheet entry location and actuated past the sheet entry location at the other end by rotary members which are driven in opposite directions to engage and move the bins in opposite directions.
Sorting machines of the shifting bin type are also disclosed in the following prior U.S. Pat. Nos.:
Kishi et al 4,203,587 May 20, 1980 PA0 Stemmle 3,788,640 Jan. 19, 1974
Reference is also made to the Clarkson et al disclosure of a sheet sorter in XEROX DISCLOSURE JOURNAL" Vol. 1, No. 4, page 59, April 1976.
In Kishi et al, the bins are allowed to fall past the sheet entry location by operation of a pawl mechanism. The bins are then all lifted manually or by a restoration means. The outer ends of the trays are pivotally and longitudinally slidably mounted.
In Stemmle, the bins are engaged by screw shafts at both sides of the inlet end and at the center of the other end. The screw shafts have high pitch and low pitch threads which shift the bins in unison in opposite directions to uniformly widely space the bins at the inlet and support the bins in uniformly closely spaced relation, as they are moved in opposite directions at opposite sides of the sheet entry.
In the Clarkson et al disclosure, the bins are pivotally mounted at their outer ends and are allowed by an indexing arrangement to fall through an arc to increase the space, between bins at the sheet entry location.
All of such sorters have the advantage that the large space between bins at the sheet inlet location reduces the liklihood of jamming of the incoming sheets.